For Phoenix Suns, 'Beat LA' is more important than ever

Suns fans share many characteristics. They're loyal. They love their mascot. They remember Connie Hawkins. They're suspicious of referees. They're easily distracted and don't always make it back to their seats after halftime. They yearn for the long-awaited championship.

And for the better part of 42 years, they've been chanting a certain phrase with grim determination: "Beat LA!"

It hasn't always happened. It's never been more important than now.

Beat the Lakers, and the Suns will return to the NBA Finals for the first time in 17 years. This could be the best, last chance for Steve Nash to win a championship, a gritty sportsman who has shed much blood in the failed pursuit of the trophy. No player in history has played more playoff games (112) without reaching the NBA Finals.

Like Charles Barkley, Nash does not deserve an asterisk on his career.

Beat the Lakers, and the city of Phoenix will feel a certain measure of satisfaction. If you haven't heard, grandstanding politicians in Los Angeles have jumped into our political business, announcing a boycott of Arizona. One LA councilwoman asked Lakers players to bring food with them on the road so they wouldn't spend a penny inside our borders. As if they didn't have enough problems in their own backyard.

Beat the Lakers, and the Suns could send Phil Jackson into retirement. The venerable Lakers coach is in the last year of his contract. He sits in an oversized chair, enhancing his ability to look down on people. He has a long history of scoffing at our basketball teams.

Jackson believes that basketball is a big man's game, and his mental tactics infuriated former Suns coach Mike D'Antoni. Already, he has inserted himself in the Western Conference finals, claiming that Nash gets away with carrying the basketball.

In essence, he accused Nash of cheating.

Suns coach Alvin Gentry is a smart guy. He knows better than to be coaxed into verbal skirmishes with the opposing head coach, thereby getting entangled inside Jackson's distraction tactics. We'll see how long that lasts.

"Ten championships," Gentry said, when asked the difference between him and his colleague. "I've got my wedding ring on, and he's got 10. Phil, arguably, is the greatest coach that ever coached in the NBA. The guy has 10 championship rings. He's a lot more laid-back than I am. I'm a lot more emotional than he is. But let's be honest: I know you're not comparing coaches in this series. Let's not do that, OK?"

Beat the Lakers, and it will rank among the greatest achievements in team history.

Look, the San Antonio triumph was deeply personal and extremely gratifying. But the Lakers are special. The Lakers are dynastic. They play in front of A-list celebrities such as Jack Nicholson and Denzel Washington. They play on a court that is lit like a Hollywood set, with the audience faded in black. The Lakers are the Yankees, a team that towers over the sport.

The Lakers have played for a championship 30 times in their 62-year history.

"The Lakers . . . there's a sexiness there; there's an excitement," Suns forward Grant Hill said. "People love the Lakers, and they're the defending champions. You want to go against the best, and you'd like to beat the best."

Pause.

"Actually, I'd like to play New Jersey in the Western Conference finals, but you can't play them."

For a while, our mind-set toward LA changed dramatically. People from California fled to the Valley for a better life. We invited the Dodgers to spring with us, building them a palace in Glendale. We eliminated the Lakers in 2006 and 2007, embarrassing Kobe Bryant something fierce.

But that bit of civic revenge was tempered with sobering reality - that was a half-baked team with Smush Parker and Kwame Brown, a group so feeble that Bryant quit on them in an epic Game 7 meltdown in Phoenix.